New publication: “Looking past: Turkish surrealism in translation”

Ambra D’Antone

Looking past: Turkish surrealism in translation

in Surrealism in North Africa and Western Asia
Crossings and Encounters
by Dr. Monique Bellan, Dr. Julia Drost
Ergon, 2021, 287 pages
ISBN 978-3-95650-858-5

Full table of contents available here.

Part of the series Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS) (Volume 141) published by the Orient-Institut Beirut, (Max Weber Stiftung)

This volume discusses surrealism in literature and art in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey between the 1930s and 1980s. Surrealism emerged as a movement in art and literature in Europe in the 1920s and quickly spread across the globe. It only led to a few movements or official groups in the regions discussed here and was mainly received in poetry rather than in the arts. However, surrealism played a role, albeit a more discrete and individualistic one. The volume aims at drawing a clearer picture of the sporadic resonances of surrealism in these regions thereby contributing to the history of both transmodernism and surrealism. Methodologically, it seeks to explore connections, encounters, and exchanges on individual, institutional, and spiritual levels. A new look at global surrealism needs to consider these micro-level manifestations when addressing questions such as when, where, and what surrealism was. The answer might reveal that surrealism was far more widespread than presumed until now.

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